Quote:
Originally Posted by karamazonk
Curious what led you from playing poker to your current job? That seems like a very fast transition; did you have a background in employee benefits prior to poker?
Hey, thanks for asking. I had no background in benefits before poker.
I graduated high school in spring 2003 and chose not to go to college. By fall of 2003 i was working for a telecommunications consulting and contracting firm traveling the country. I did that until January 2011.
Chose to leave poker and pursue an alternative career for a few reasons in Oct 2012 (left in Dec 2012).
1.) Family life as a grinder is challenging and I found myself becoming more and more disconnected from my personal relationships.
2.) Financial stability was the second major facor. As my wife and I were aiming to begin having children, the inconsistent income of poker, while being highly compensated on average, was making planning for a family difficult.
3.) My largest success and how I wanted to continue to earn a living was in online mtts/sngs so I could work my own schedule from home. Games were drying up and earning a 6 figure income was becoming increasingly difficult in the US without relying on heavy MTT schedules which is not something i wanted to pursue long term.
I started consulting a number of family and friends regarding their thoughts about different industries. I settled on the insurance industry as I knew I could land an entry level sales role with no prior experience (1099 commission only) and grow from there to wherever I wanted to go within the industry.
I spent 2.5 years as a 1099 sales agent selling medicare supplements and life insurance earning about $32k my first year and would have been around $80k in year 3 all while receiving excellent training.
I then left that 1099 role and joined my current agency in a sales capacity (W2) about 4 months before the birth of my son. After 15 months, at my request, I transitioned to a consultative role to existing clients eliminating my sales quota, but still allowing for substantial income growth based on how we structured my compensation arrangement. Simply put, I love sales but didn't want to "prospect" anymore.
I received some good news last week and if all goes as planned over the next 2 weeks, I should have 2 new clients closed by July 1 providing an additional $20k/year income stream on top of my current ~$150k compensation.
While I had no prior experience, like most successful poker pros, I'm reasonably intelligent, have an affinity for numbers and details, coupled with 5 years of sales experience and training, places me in the perfect role to utilize all of my current skillsets.
Thankfully I have a good enough relationship with my "managers" so that I'm not bucketed on a flat salary like most other folks in my role. After I played poker for a living, I never really wanted someone else to dictate what I was worth (salary or hourly wage) and with how my agreement is structured, and my managers willingness to work with me to achieve my long term goals, I get paid precisely based on the level and quantity of work that I perform.
Just to throw a number at it, the book of business I consult pays our agency roughly $1,300,000 per year. I get a small piece of the pie for what I do but I have the capacity to handle high volume (and ideally, a book of business worth up to $2,500,000 if we continue to structure it correctly).
Last edited by BAEVentures; 05-20-2018 at 11:39 PM.
Reason: P.S. Sorry if that's way more detail than you wanted. I'm very proud of my transition from poker to insurance.